Rival Identification
by yumika
Summary: In tennis, whether out of vengeance for losing a game or out of sheer respect, it was common manner to remember the name of an opponent. The members of ‘this’ tennis club, however, seemed to be lacking in that department – quite noticeably.


**Disclaimer:** If I owned Prince of Tennis, I wouldn't be spending time writing fanfics, I would just make it happen in the show.

**Rival Identification  
**Part One – Input Error

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Aside from the schools that could hardly be considered a threat, there were Fudomine, St. Rudolph, Yamabuki, Hyōtei, Rokkaku, and Rikkai Junior High. Therefore, with the rapidly increasing amount of rivals that they were beginning to face, a certain stoic captain of the Seishun Gakuen Tennis Club figured that each member should remember the characteristics of players that they had already confronted in the past – at '_least_' the ones that they personally have played against; after all, Inui would not always be there to provide them with that data. But being the capable players that they were, they were all able to do '_that_,' '_just that_.'

So what was the problem?

The said captain twitched slightly – '_the problem_' was the description that they were providing of their opponents. In tennis, whether out of vengeance for losing a game or out of sheer respect, it was common manner to remember the name of an opponent. The members of '_this_' tennis club, however, seemed to be lacking in that department – quite noticeably.

In fact, after getting an hour full of descriptions like "rhythm freak," "that rambling guy," and "the one that kept saying dane," Tezuka was getting quite agitated. After a while, it got so bad that he began giving 10 laps to each stupid response he got out of the regulars but that still didn't prevent them from giving the most ridiculous nicknames the he had ever heard in his lifetime – not that he didn't see where the names came from.

What was his solution to the problem?

"All of you have 24 hours to find out the '_real_' names of '_every-last-one_' of your opponents or I can tell you that you'll be running laps until your last breaths... And I don't mean in running…" he proclaimed with an even voice, despite the fact that his features betrayed him by wavering between complete impassiveness to comical displays of anger and back – comical to those who knew him well anyways.

Okay, so maybe names weren't 'that' important, but this was just ridiculous. "The train guy?" Who is he talki…? He's referring to that guy from Rokkaku, Itsuki Marehiko, isn't he? He did sort of remind you of a… Tezuka twitched slightly again, and managed to stop himself from continuing '_that_' train of thought. That still doesn't excuse them from this ice breaker activity, he concluded hastily.

Everybody else, on the other hand, just stared silently through their buchou's self-contemplation – whether it was because of what they were demanded to do or because _Tezuka_ out of all the people, actually_ threatened_ them, sarcastically for that matter, is still a mystery.

So the said silence continued and the puzzled faces just stared on. Well actually, there was a certain tensai that was smiling at Tezuka's troubled expression, and a freshman that was saying 'mada mada dane' under his breath, but that was beside the point. This heavy stillness just dragged on that is until a certain loud-mouthed sophomore managed to stutter bravely, "Y…You're kidding…right?" But with a glare that promised pain and torture should anyone question any further, they all resolved to comply - they were all too young to die '_running._'

After they were all excused from practice, which carried on pretty long after that whole ordeal – if they didn't know any better they'd say their captain was actually aggravated or something. They split up the schools so that each member wouldn't have to go to all six. They ended up just picking the schools randomly, of course, but a certain tensai demanded to go to St. Rudolph – nobody argued with him, what's the use of trying to save themselves from Tezuka's wrath if they oppose '_him_.'

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**A/N** I guess this story's probably pretty hard to follow along if you don't know the characters of the show very well, but that's the point Prince of Tennis is beginning to have '_so_' much new characters recently… Not that we don't love them all… Anyways, read and review… Any criticism is welcome since I like to correct things a lot. Coming up in the next chapter, Fuji's visit to St. Rudolph… lol...


End file.
